The last iceman of the Chimborazo

The last iceman of the Chimborazo

Baltazar Ushka, el Último Hielero del Chimborazo, is the last iceman of the Chimborazo Volcano. He goes up the mountain two or three times a week with his donkeys to catch down the ice he sells later in the Riobamba market. He tears enormous ice blocks from the glacier and then he cuts them into smaller pieces that will be protected with grass before they are loaded on the donkeys. The ice from the Chimborazo has a good reputation to make ice creams or to drink as people think they are drinking the mountain. These days and due to climate change, Baltazar has to go further up the mountain to find the glacier as the global warm is melting the ice.